Enhancing your musical performance by cultivating a beautiful tone is like adding a splash of color to a black-and-white painting. It transforms the music, breathing life into each note and giving every piece its unique personality. Varying your tone will truly immerse you in the music, allowing you to vividly envision the emotions and story behind each note you play. In this blog I will share some important aspects of tone production which I hope will help give each piece you play a unique character you wouldn't be able to produce otherwise.
Fingernails
First of all, should you use fingernails or not? Most guitarists use fingernails, myself included. But I think both the fingernail and fingertip can each create their own unique tone that the other could simply not produce. Let's have a look at what classical guitarist Emilio Pujol says on the subject:
"The sound produced with the nails strikes one's ear as if each note were a very small, sharp arrow piercing our sensibility. It is conical, pungent and nasal, reminiscent of the lute and the harpsichord, with an odour of frankincense and a savour of ancient ballads; it calls up gothic altar paintings and primitive styles, and is like an echo of the poetical ideology of the troubadours and minnesingers. This style seems to recall a long and distant past full of rich and noble exaltations of the spirit. It is the sonority which Falla has expanded in well balanced proportions in his "Concerto for Harpsichord", a genial reflection of the Spain of the Middle Ages, austere and profoundly Christian.
The tone of a string struck with the finger-tip possesses an intrinsic beauty, which affects the deepest feelings of our sensibility, just as air and light permeate space. Its notes are incorporeal, as might be the notes of an ideally expressive and responsive harp. It has, as well as this intimate character, some of the Roman strength and Greek balance. It recalls the gravity of an organ and the expressiveness of a violincello. The guitar ceases to be feminine and becomes an instrument of grave virility. Finally, this style stands for the transmission, without impurities, of the deepest vibrations of our emotions."
- Emilio Pujol (The Dilemma of Timbre on the Guitar)
If you do use fingernails, here are some things to pay attention to:
The smoothness of your nails: Use micro-mesh sandpaper (6,000 grit or greater) to ensure your fingernails are smooth. Having smooth nails can significantly improve your tone quality.
The angle at which you attack the strings: Plucking with the side of your nail produces a softer tone compared to plucking with the middle.
Keep your wrist straight: Plucking from the middle of your nail is often a result of a bent wrist. Maintain a fairly straight wrist to avoid a harsh tone (this applies to flesh playing as well).
Use the left side of the nail: To get the smoothest tone, try using the left side of your nails when plucking the strings.
Straight Wrist Bent Wrist
Tone Color
Varying tone color is a crucial element in music that can truly elevate a piece and bring it to life. By incorporating different timbres and textures, musicians can evoke a range of emotions and create an engaging listening experience for their audiences. Classical guitar has an exceptional capacity to create a diverse range of tone colors - something not found in many other instruments.
Catharina Pratten wrote a methodbook for classical guitar in which she included this tone color chart. It's quite an eye-opener when you consider how close this diagram suggests we should play to the bridge and fretboard. Many guitarists would never dream of being that extreme. Perhaps it's true we wouldn't use these tones so often, but when we want a certain effect we shouldn't be afraid to play that close to the bridge or fretboard.
Playing close to the bridge gives a louder, brighter tone, while playing close to the fretboard gives a softer, more mellow tone. In guitar, playing close to the bridge is defined as "pontecello" (literally Italian for "bridge") and playing close to the fretboard as "tasto" (literally Italian for "fretboard").
Let's have a look at the examples in the diagram.
Example A: Play very close to the bridge.
Example B: Play about halfway between the bridge and rosette.
Example C: Play over the rosette.
Example D: Play over the sound hole.
Example E: Play over the fretboard.
There are so many diffrent tones we can get just by moving our right hand. Ferdinando Carulli has well said that, "The right hand does not have a fixed position."
Plucking Speed
Perhaps you have heard it said that the speed at which you pluck the strings does not matter. This is incorrect, as the different speeds at which you pluck will actually create a different tones. The faster the pluck, the sound tends to be a bit sharp and metallic, while a slow pluck can create a fuller effect. This does not mean that one is bad and the other is good, it just provides us with another option to convey the character of the music in our playing.
Applying This to Your Playing
Numerous methods can be utilized to incorporate the diverse tones available on the guitar into your playing. I believe that it is crucial to analyze the musical piece you are playing when applying these techniques (visit my blog post on Analyzing a Piece of Music). Guitarists have expressly emphasized the importance of creating contrast or echoing when you have repeating bars or phrases. For instance, the initial playthrough could be forte and ponticello, while the repetition might be piano and tasto. We can also adjust our plucking speed, plucking slower for gentle pieces and faster for more intense and bold compositions.
Credits
Sidney Pratten Guitar School
The Creative Classical Guitarist Online School: creativeclassicalguitarist.com
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